Six wives of One King day 6

Day 6 Peterborough & Cambridge. After a fabulous night at the George hotel in Stamford and dinner in the Oak room we set off for Peterborough Cathedral where Catherine of Aragon lies buried. We had a personal guided tour and were shown parts of the Cathedral that the ordinary visitor would not see. The place is huge and has the most unique painted ceiling in the Nave and a fan vaulted ceiling in the extension built in 1505 by the architect John Wastell, the same man who is responsible for the masterpiece that is Kings College chapel in Cambridge. The real reason to visit here is to pay our respects to Catherine of Aragon and she lies under a simple black marble slab by the side of the Alter. I had taken some rosemary from Catherine’s Garden at Buckden yesterday and each one of our group had a private moment laying a sprig of fresh rosemary on her last resting place. Opposite Catherine on the other side of the Alter is the former grave of Mary Queen of Scots before she was taken to Westminster when her son James I was made King of England. At Cambridge and inside Kings College chapel we were treated to music from the great organ, (well it was being tuned). The place is simply magnificent, by far the best single building that Henry VIII left us. It has the largest fan vaulted roof in the world and has breathtaking stained glass windows. There is a whole guide book just for the windows. In the days when people could not read and write is was a way of telling those people what the glory of God was all about and in these windows there appears King Henry VIII as Soloman. Also looking up at him is Catherine Howard in profile. We finished our daily travel in London, at a Hotel very near the Thames and alson near the Globe Theatre. We had a very pleasant walk around Southwark taking in some places that the ordinary visitor would not see. We had fish and chips at the George Inn, the oldest galleried pub in England and where Dickens and Shakespeare would have known

Six wives on One King day 5

Day 5 Today we had to backtrack to Sudeley castle becuase it was closed yesterday. You can’t have a six wives tour without all the six wives and Katherine Parr is the last wife. The only Queen of England buried on private property and lies peacefully in the Church alongside the castle. The castle was blown up by Oliver Cromwell ( we really don’t like him)and lay derelict for over 200 years until Emma Dent bought it and restored it to something approaching its former glory. There is a new exhibition in the south hall, a part of the castle that was Katherine’s private apartments. There are some interesting portraits on display and the rooms themselves are very small but heavy with history. In the church, Katherine lies in the corner she died in childbirth here at Sudeley but I’m a bit sorry to report that there is a display of her “lying in state” in the Lady Chapel, it’s a bit out of keeping with a church setting. There are also some really good artefacts on display in the main museum such as Her Prayer book. From there we had a long journey to catch up with the tour at Buckden Towers. Though along the journey we were very surpised to have the only airworthy WWII Lancaster baomber fly directltly over us. Buckden the place where Catherine of Aragon was held before being moved to Kimbolton. Charles Brandon the Duke of Suffolk came here to move her but the local men who loved her dearly, stood menacingly in his way for 5 days. Charles went away and come back with more men and eventually brought her to Kimbolton. The friends of Buckden Towrs have recreated a garden of the typoe that Ctaherine woulkd have known here and it is a really lovely peaceful place. I think Henry had her sent to Buckden as it was at the edge of the fens and there was malaria around at the time, a case of assination by natural causes. Kimbolton has much changed since 1536 and the place that Catherine would have known. It has been a private school since 1956. Here it was that she spent the last 20 months of her life confined to just a small suite of 2 rooms with her personal maids. To stand in those rooms, which incidentally is the head masters office, and to hear the last letter she wrote to Henry VIII read out is a very moving moment. A reflective afternoon in all and one of the points on the tour that makes you think of the hard life that Catherine had once Henry had decided to divorce her.

Six wives of one King day 4

Day 4 A late start today as we only had about 6 miles to travel from Stow to Sudeley. Imagine my heart as it sank when we arrived at the gate to see it padlocked shut and a small notice pinned on saying closed for a private event we regret any inconvenience caused. Ye gods and little fishes !! Closed! And both the telephone numbers on the sign board were recorded messages. We just have to come back tomorrow and yes we are inconvenienced. From there we travelled to Coughton Court (pronounced coat-en) the home of the Catholic Throckmorton family for over 600 years. Here we find Bess Throckmorton favourite lady in waiting to Elizabeth I until she married Sir Walter Raleigh in secret and was banished from Court. Now a curious tale about her is that when Sir Walter was beheaded, she carried his head about with her for the rest of her life, just about 25 years. By the way his head can be found in a velvet sack in the room of consequences. The real reason to visit Coughton is the Tudor artefacts, the chemise worn by Mary Queen of Scots at her execution and the Bishops mantle sewn by Catherine of Aragon. Both are together in a darkened room but it is the Bishops mantle that sets the heart racing, actually handled by a loved Queen of England. From Coughton we travelled to Kenilworth castle and where we are to spend the night. Kenilworth is such and important place in the history of England it’s hard to know where to start. In Tudor terms, Henry VIII came here but the royal progress of 1575 beats that hand down. Robert Dudley the Earl of Leicester spent millions on today’s money to get Elizabeth to marry him, all to no avail. Henry V was given a chest of Tennis balls by the French king in March of 1415 an insult that backfired spectacularly at the Battle of Agincourt in October of that year. I had some tennis balls form Hampton court palace that I gave to people so that we could say that we have played with tennis balls in the great hall of Kenilworth Castle We finished off the day with dinner in a pub called the famous Virgins and Castle, built in 1565. Some great beer and good food and a discussion of the day’s highs and lows.

Six wives of one King day 3

Day 3 Windsor and Windsor castle today in a day of glorious sunshine. The little issue with good sunshine is that it does tend to bring out the tourist in a place like this, but your reporter has all this in hand. We already had our entry tickets so no queuing to get into the castle in the first place and when inside everybody goes straight to the State Apartments first. We headed in the other direction and were the very first to go into St Georges chapel where the organist was still practicing and to be there all alone hearing that music is an experience that gives you goose pimples even after witnessing evensong last night. St Georges has great architecture and finished by Henry VIII, he is buried in the quire in a vault under a plain black marble slab with his favourite wife Jane Seymour, hardly an end befitting England’s greatest Monarch. There are many other Sovereigns buried here including our present Queens Mother and Father. After St Georges Chapel we were ideally placed to witness close up the changing of the guard on the parade square. This time it was the Coldstream Guards. Just to make a point here they are real soldiers and the ceremonial guard is part of their rotation duties, they probably will be off to Afghanistan next. The State apartments is where everybody wants to see but they all queue up to see the Queen Mary’s dolls house first, ever the canny guide we walked right past them all through another door into the State rooms. The flow of visitors can be held up in places but some of the rooms are glorious and the repairs after the great fire are better that the original. So nearly two hours later we emerged blinking, into the bright sunlight. After some free time around the town we set off later in the day to Stow on the Wold in the heart of the Cotswolds to stay at the Royalist hotel, the oldest hotel in England( more about that later). I can honestly say that having dinner on a trapdoor in the ancient bar room is one of the most surreal experiences I have ever had. Why a trapdoor I hear you say, well it leads down to what was once a leper pit!!

six wives of one king day 2

Day 2 Our first full day on tour, and it was memorable. We only had to walk across the road to Hampton Court Palace to immerse ourselves in the heart of Tudor Britain. The Palace is the only one left out of the 60 Palaces that Henry VIII built or confiscated. It is a vast place with many parts to see form the Tudor period. There are the Kitchens, or really a food factory for 700 meals twice a day. The Great Hall is wonderful and when there is nobody else in there you can hear a pin drop. The Young Henry exhibition follows the life of Henry, and along the Gallery that resonates with Tudor events, Catherine Parr married Henry here and Catherine Howard ran screaming after Henry after her arrest. The Chapel Royal also holds an important place, here Henry received the letter damning Catherine Howards infidelity. There are many other exhibitions to see not in the Tudor period such as the Wild the Beautiful and the Damned. Portraits of the mistresses and courtesans of Charles II are on display, some incredibly beautiful women and one huge one of Charles II in full royal regalia. The real joy of the day though is little play-lets running throughout the day, and today’s theme was Henry VIII trying to woo and placate Anne Boleyn, it is hugely entertaining and a great way to get schoolchildren engaged in history. We managed to catch up with Henry and Anne and get a royal photo.It was great fun and we got involved in the action, Cromwell was a great character and the King can command silence from any group of school children. We the travelled to Windsor only 16 miles away but along the river Thames and again there is history all around you, we passed the site of the signing of Magna Carta in 1215 the first written bill of human rights. At Windsor we were just on time to attend the evensong service in St Georges Chapel. It’s a great feeling when challenged where you’re going at the gates of Windsor Castle to reply evensong and be shown the way to go. We finished the day and a fine Greek restaurant and some Greek beer.

day 1

Six Wives of One King, day 1 Before the official start of the tour we travelled southwest tour of London by train to the Vyne at Basingstoke in Hampshire. The Vyne is a beautiful place full of Tudor history, but long before that time the Romans first planted grape vines here in England and it’s been called the Vyne ever since for 1600 years. The place was once owned by the Sandys family who are courtiers of Henry VIII and we started at the Vyne for two reasons which will become very much clearer as the tour progresses. The first is the Oak panelled long gallery. Still in it’s original condition, there are carvings of pomegranates, and other symbols relating to Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII and it’s a truly remarkable place to stand in and realise that this is where Henry stood. The second reason is the stained glass windows in the Chapel, There are three windows, one is of Henry VIII, one for Catherine of Aragon and Henry’s sister Margaret each with their own patron saint. The Windows are superb and also remarkable that they survived Oliver Cromwell during our civil war in the 1640’s. They were in fact hidden in a pond for several years to keep them safe. After the Vyne we drove to Hampton Court, no not to go to the Palace but to just leave our luggage at the hotel before we set of on the first real leg of the tour to Syon House about 6 miles away. Syon is a very important Tudor house, it’s been the home of the Percy family for over 450 years. Here in the long gallery is where Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen. The gallery has been remodelled since the Tudor period, but if you keep in mind the image of the long Gallery at the Vyne then you get a true picture of what it looked like in 1553, where for just 9 days Lady Jane Grey was Queen. We then came back to Hampton Court to go to Palace and have a lesson of real tennis, nothing like lawn tennis that Roger Federer or Nadal play today but the game that Henry VIII played actually on this very site, indoors and with galleries, sloping roofs, a bell and a played with a hard ball made of cork, leather and string binding. It’s a very difficult game to master with complicated rules and lots of different lines on the court. We finished the day with a splendid dinner and wine at the hotel overlooking the river Thames

day minus 1

Day Minus 1 We’re still a day to go before the tour starts properly but today we went on a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. Courtesy of our local Member of Parliament we enjoyed a personal guided tour around the inside of one of the World’s most recognised buildings. Westminster Great Hall dates from the 1200’ and is the largest space in medieval England. The Palace of Westminster was a royal palace on the side of the Thames and since that time and Henry VIII wanted a better Palace so he built Whitehall Palace. The Great Hall apart, the present Parliament buildings date from the mid 1800’s after the Old Palace burnt down. We were taken through the House of Lords, the Queens room where she puts on the State Regalia for the State opening of Parliament. The red benches of the House of Lords are a stark contrast to the Green of the House of Commons, the green some say is because the commons are green with envy towards the House of Lords. In the audience chamber there are two huge paintings one is the Battle of Waterloo 1815 and the other is the Battle of Trafalgar 1805 both times when the British beat the French. They can be covered up if a French president comes to make a speech. We had tea with our MP Stephen Lloyds who made some time for us out of his busy day in the Pugin room, named after the Architect who built the New Houses of Parliament. Afterwards we had a brief stop in the sunshine on the Terrace of the Houses of Parliament. A great way to spend a morning and we are eagerly awaiting the start proper tomorrow.

Six wives of one King

Day Minus 2 We haven't started yet still two days to go but I picked up a client who arrived in England from the USA 2 days early this morning from Heathrow Airport. We got to the Mad Hatter Hotel by 11 am but needless to say the room wasn’t ready so after a cup of coffee in the bar we decided to go for a little walk. I say a little walk, we were out for a little over 3 hours! The hotel is in Southwark just on the south side of Blackfriars Bridge over the river Thames, so we walked over the bridge to Blackfriars where Baynards castle once stood and on the site of the Blackfriars pub is where the great hall was, here Catherine of Aragon had her annulment trial. From there we walked up Ludgate to St Pauls Cathedral and picked up some leaflets from the Tourist information centre and then went to the Old Bailey which was once the site of the infamous Newgate prison. There was a couple of Barristers in their gown and wigs talking to their clients outside, Just over the road is St Sepulcre’s church . It is here that there is the world’s first public drinking water fountain with cups still chained to the railings. Nearby is the site of the Fortunes of War pub. Grave robbers used to display their stolen bodies waiting for the surgeons to come out of St Bart’s hospital to buy them. In the wall there is a little monument to the edge of the great fire of London, a little fat boy painted gold to remind the people what can happen Just along from there is Ely Place and St Ethelreda’s church, converted back to the Catholic faith in 1874 and is one of the very few churches in the country to say Mass in Latin. Pausing momentarily in Hatton Garden to admire the centre of the World’s diamond trade, ( if you have to ask the cost you can’t afford it) we had lunch in the Citie of Yorke pub, the oldest in London and a very nice Chicken & mushroom pie it was too. After lunch we walked through Lincolns Inn fields, passing the Old Curiosity shop and the back of the Royal Courts of Justice. Lincolns Inn is where St Thomas More practiced Law. Tucked away in a little corner is one of the most historic buildings in England. It’s where the Bank of England was first set up in 1693 by the King and some influential Merchants. A walk through Chancery Lane led us to Dr Johnson’s House, the person who wrote the first English Dictionary in 1755 His favourite pub is Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street and still a spit & sawdust establishment. Our final place to pause was St Brides Church just to look at the tiered Spire, built by Sir Christopher Wren, it is the inspiration behind every wedding cake in the Christian world. Finally back over Blackfriars Bridge to the Hotel and about 3 miles the room was ready.

May 15th 1536 Anne Boleyn was found guilty of her alleged crimes of Treason, adultery, incest and others. The Jury was stacked and even her uncle the Duke of Norfolk was presiding. I think the message was clear, get rid of her and quick. Henry couldn't face the prospect of a another divorced wife. Catherine of Aragon had only just died of a broken heart in January and she had continually maintained that she was his one true wife, for 10years! So he didn't want another one doing the same thing. One other curious aspect of the whole thing. She was entenced to be burnt to death or beheaded. The King in his mercy decided that the headsman from Calais should do the deed. Why was that? and when did he decide?

Day 7 Hampton Court Palace

Day 7 Hampton Court Palace.

Only a short journey to get here today so we had the Great hall to ourselves right after the door opened. It’s great to be in there with nobody else, you can really feel the centuries falling away as you look at the Kings tapestries hanging there, each one as costly as a battleship and a magnificent work of art. The story of the series of playlets today was the King chasing Jayne Seymour around the Palace to try and woo her with poetry money. It was the time that Anne Boleyn was in disgrace and the actor playing Thomas Cromwell was especially creepy and unctuous, he even threw two us out of the council chamber! To the great enjoyment of the people gathered there. You just never knew when you would round a corner and there would be Jayne desperately trying to distance herself from the Kings presence and seeking your aid in her endeavours. Great entertainment and a history lesson in one go.

There is much to see in and around Hampton court Palace, the Gardens, the Maze, the Great vine, the kitchens, Young Henry, the history of the palace, and others, not to mention the drop dead excellent pot bellied pies in the kitchen cafe. We kept moving all day with the Tudor parts that we did not have time to visit the new exhibition of the Wild the Beautiful and the damned portraits of King Charles II principle Mistresses, so I well make a special effort to see them next time we’re there in May. We headed off into Central London where we finished off the tour in grand style with a Tudor Banquet in the medieval crypt in St Katherine’s Dock. It’s a hugely enjoyable show and finally exhausted after trying to find Henry all week, we found him here singing Greensleeves to us as we supped our ale and wine.

day 6 Windsor

Day 6 Windsor The Queen was in! The Royal standard was flying above the round tower in the stiff breeze. The Changing of the guards took place in the courtyard which meant we couldn’t see much at all as the public are not admitted there especially when the Queen is at home! We stood at St George’s gate and watched them march out, wow the band was load in such a small confined space.

We were in St Georges chapel almost by ourselves as the crowds always go straight to the State Apartments after the change. We had very engaging chats with the custodians around the place. What has superman got to do with Henry VIII? Well Superman is 500 years old, yes that’s right the new superman film out later this year stars Henry Cavil as Superman. The actor Henry Cavil, as all Tudor fans will know played Charles Brandon alongside Jonathan Rhys Myers Henry VIII. I digress a little but Charles Brandon is buried under a marble slab in St Georges Chapel not too far away from his friend Henry VIII. The Royal apartments are elegant and again we managed to view everything within them without all the crowds so we took our time and finished our tour in the new undercroft cafe. The rain had kept the crowd s thin out and it’s a perfect time to go and visit as the royal apartments can take two hours to go round. There’s a lot to see in Windsor other than the castle, the Crooked House for example is a delightful tea room that has much more charm in its wonky timber interior than the usual coffee houses that you can find anywhere.

Dinner tonight was in a lovely family run Greek restaurant with a superb bottle of Cypriot wine.